03/02, 7:55am

Get more from Apple's deceptively powerful word processor

You probably own Apple's Pages, and you may even have opened it. If you did, what you think depends on what you're used to: new users just dive right in and start typing, while we've heard Word users complain that it simply isn't powerful enough for them. This is an odd one: they are actually right, but not in the ways they expect. Pages does lack some of the very heavy-lifting word processor functions that Word has, but few people use those. What Word fans think is missing from Pages is the more general day-to-day features that in fact it has, and has very well.

11/06, 10:13am

Basic editing now open to users without Office 365 subscriptions

Microsoft has updated its previously iPad-only iOS Office apps with iPhone support. Although the iPhone interfaces are said to have full feature parity with the iPad, Microsoft has made various changes to accommodate a smaller screen. Chief among these is the "vertical ribbon," designed to keep editing tools within thumb reach at the bottom of the screen. In addition, Microsoft has decided to drop the Office365 subscription requirement previously needed to do anything more with the suite than read Office documents.

09/02, 1:40pm

Includes Home, Personal tiers

Microsoft has today updated the Office iPad apps -- including Word, Excel, and PowerPoint -- with in-app purchases of monthly Office 365 subscriptions. These are divided into Personal and Home tiers. The first costs $7 per month, and is limited to one iPad and one PC/Mac. It does, however, come with 1TB of cloud storage, and 60 minutes of Skype calling to cellphones and landlines.

07/31, 3:32pm

Excel, PowerPoint get custom improvements

Microsoft has updated its trio of Office apps for the iPad -- Word, Excel, and PowerPoint -- adding a number of significant features. Perhaps the biggest addition is support for PDF export, but new third-party fonts have also been added, as have new Picture tools that let people crop an image or reset it to an unaltered state. Other changes are specific to Excel and PowerPoint.

07/02, 1:53pm

Android version of Office apps allegedly scheduled for release later this year

Microsoft is building a full suite of Office apps for Android, a report claims. Following the official port to the iPad it launched in March, Microsoft is said to be privately testing separate apps for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint for the mobile operating system, with the company apparently seeking businesses and individuals to provide feedback on pre-release versions.

05/12, 2:46pm

Stats doubled in one month, says Microsoft

Downloads of Office for iPad have exceeded 27 million, according to the general manager for Microsoft's Office division, Julia White. White made the comment today during a keynote at Microsoft's TechEd conference in Houston. The figure is more than twice the 12 million Microsoft quoted on April 3rd, just a week after the suite reached the App Store.

04/29, 1:17pm

Excel gets improved AutoFit, PowerPoint gets SmartGuides

Microsoft has released its first update for Office for iPad, introducing AirPrint support to all three apps. Word lets users print files with or without markup. Excel gives options to print a whole workbook, a single sheet, or a selected range, and all three apps let users print specific pages or slides.

04/15, 6:36am

Excel Online adds comments, OneNote gains printing options

Microsoft has made a number of updates to its Office Online web apps, just over a month after its rebranding and relaunch. Changes to the online versions of Excel, Word, PowerPoint, and OneNote apply to all users of the online productivity suite, with Chrome users also benefiting from the addition of the Office Online apps to the Chrome Web Store.

04/08, 2:44pm

Technical limitations partly blamed for suite's delay

The recently-launched Office for iPad will get printing support "in due course," according to a Reddit AMA conducted by members of the software's engineering team. The team says it is also considering mathematical notation in OneNote, and working on implementation of comments and add/change conditional formatting in Excel. Something the suite won't support, though, is third-party Office apps, despite the fact that Microsoft allows desktop developers to hook into Office 365. Microsoft blames the situation on Apple's App Store policies, which block apps from installing code other than their own.

03/28, 3:12pm

Word only Office app in Grossing category's top 10

Just a day after their release, the Office for iPad apps are already in high positions in the Top Free and Top Grossing charts at the App Store. The top three Free apps are currently Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, in that order; a related Microsoft app, OneNote, is in fourth. Word is #5 on the Top Grossing chart, while Excel is 12th, and PowerPoint is 29th.

03/27, 5:18pm

Microsoft brings industry-standard document editing to iOS

Although a lot of apps have tried to fill the gap with degrees of success, there's always been an undercurrent of demand for a full-scale iPad version of Office. Even if you can escape using Office personally, it's the workplace standard -- it just makes sense to have the suite on the world's most popular tablet. Now Office for iPad is here, and it's time to share some first impressions.

09/11, 10:57am

Adds features to Outlook

Microsoft has released a new patch for Office for Mac, v14.3.7. The code is primarily a maintenance release, cleaning up bugs in the software. It does however add a collection of improvements to Outlook, such as pane navigation, item sort order in the View menu, and the ability to insert images via the Format menu.

08/23, 2:12pm

Mojo Refuel made for iPhone 5

iBattz has announced the immediate availability of its latest removable battery case, the Mojo Refuel. The case provides additional battery life to the user's phone with its two interchangeable 2200mAh batteries. The case is intended for reducing one's need to recharge, and can provide enough power to last through a long work day or a power outage. Currently available in matte black, the Mojo Refuel is available online for $90.

06/14, 9:21am

Serves as companion for Office 365 subscribers

Microsoft has released Office Mobile, a companion iPhone app for Office 365 subscribers. The app lets users access and edit Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents hosted on SkyDrive or SharePoint, or else attached to email messages. Documents can also be created wholesale and/or commented on, but only in the case of Word and Excel.

03/15, 10:25am

Office 15 to support web extensions dubbed Agaves

The Office 15 program suite coming alongside Windows 8 will support web extensions dubbed Agaves from third-party developers, The Vergefound. Developers will have the ability to make a section in an Office app to let websites interact with documents in order to bring extra features. Users will get the Agaves from Microsoft's Office Marketplace as well as the developer sites themselves.

03/06, 11:15pm

Features taken from technical preview

Microsoft's upcoming Office 15 release has been exposed in yet another leak, shedding light on several of the new features. Sources with access to the company's technical preview have reported to The Verge details surrounding new touch-based interface navigation methods, a reading mode in Word, new chart analysis methods in Excel, and weather notifications in Outlook, among other features.

03/01, 1:25pm

OnLive launches Android-compatible Desktop app

Users of Android tablets can now install the OnLive Desktop app (free, Android Market) to access Windows apps. The new version mirrors the iPad edition with cloud access to a virtual machine with Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, as well as Adobe Reader for non-web PDFs. There is also 2GB of cloud storage included to save the resulting work.

02/01, 4:40pm

Apple takes Mac OS X 10.7.3 live

Apple on Wednesday afternoon posted Mac OS X 10.7.3 (release notes). The Lion upgrade adds several languages, including Catalan for Spaniards as well as Croatian, Greek, Hebrew, Romanian, Slovak, Thai, and Ukrainian. RAW photo compatibility has expanded to several new cameras, including the Nikon J1 and V1, Olympus' current PEN cameras, and current Sony Alpha and NEX cameras, such as the NEX-5N.

01/03, 5:10pm

Tools require Internet access to function

A new app, CloudOn, is offering use of Microsoft Office on the iPad without having to connect to a remote desktop PC. This includes access to Word, Excel, and PowerPoint via a Windows-style interface, and support for many major tasks and features. Among these are things like commenting, spellchecking, and running PowerPoint presentations.

09/13, 4:30pm

2011 update disables Mail import under Lion

Microsoft has released new updates for the 2011 and 2008 editions of Office for Mac. The 2011 update, v14.1.3, solves a bevy of problems, including documents not opening in some browsers. The bulk of fixes appear to be directed at Outlook, targeting issues such as contact images not displaying in the Contacts Search box. The email client has had import from Mail disabled under Lion, however, since the option "does not work as expected" under Apple's new OS, according to Microsoft.

07/25, 3:30pm

New apps cope with Word, Excel vulnerabilities

Several days after the release of iWork 9.1, Apple has at last published a list of security fixes in its productivity suite. Only three have been made, all revolving around files from Microsoft Office. Two of the closed vulnerabilities are attached to Excel files; prior to the v9.1 update, it was possible to code Excel files to trigger certain buffer overflows or memory corruptions in Numbers, in turn creating crashes or allowing system hijacks.

06/28, 11:00am

Office 365 service now available in 40 markets

Microsoft on Tuesday announced the launch of its cloud-based Office 365. Available in 40 markets, it includes Microsoft Office, Microsoft SharePoint Online, Microsoft Exchange Online and Microsoft Lync Online. All apps are always up to date and accessing them costs $6 per month, though service plans range from $2 to $27 per user per month. This full-blown launch follows a beta release launched last fall.

04/13, 3:15pm

Adds support for SkyDrive cloud storage

Microsoft has released a new version of Office 2008 for Mac, 12.2.9. The patch is mostly a maintenance update, fixing security vulnerabilities in Excel, PowerPoint and the suite as whole. It likewise copes with issues that can potentially trigger program crashes.

04/12, 4:45pm

Implements Outlook sync features

As promised last week, Microsoft has released Service Pack 1 for Office for Mac 2011. Changes to the suite primarily revolve around Outlook, which can now communicate with Sync Services in Mac OS X and exchange calendars, notes and tasks with other apps. Resend and Redirect buttons have also been added, and the updated software can make use of Exchange-based server-side rules.

01/25, 3:25pm

Includes trial of Outlook

Microsoft has rolled out a new trial version of Office for Mac 2011. The release contains all of the apps in the Home and Business edition of the suite, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint and the first Mac version of Outlook. Although the trial expires after 30 days, a valid product key unlocks the full program.

11/09, 4:45pm

Copes with freezes, crashes

Microsoft has posted its first-ever update for Office 2011 for Mac, v14.0.1. The patch is 110.5MB, and deals mainly with stability problems that could lead to programs freezing, or simply quitting entirely. Only Outlook has not received any stability tweaks.

08/24, 3:50pm

Now transfer up to 10,000 references

Thomson Reuters has launched a new version of its bibliography software, EndNote X4. The app enables users to create notes and compile references, as well as develop multiple bibliographies within Word documents. In the latest release additional PDF management tools have been added, which makes it possible to now import a file or folder of PDFs directly into the library. The update also supports references transfers up to 10,000 between the desktop and EndNote Web, as well a new Cite While You Write feature.

04/29, 7:45pm

PDF converter recognizes forms, formatting, tables

Solid Documents has launched Solid PDF to Word for Mac. The PDF converter arrives on the Mac platform with the ability to export to formats compatible with Word, Excel, Pages, HTML and text, giving a user numerous choices when editing a PDF document is necessary. The converter recognizes headers and footers, retains formatting, recovers tables and recognizes hyperlinks. It can also recover rotated text and recognize and reconstruct PDF forms.

03/29, 4:05pm

Outlook shows streamlined interface

Some early screenshots of Microsoft's Office 2011 for Mac have been leaked, a report claims. Not the least because the updated software is only due late this year, the shots are said to represent early code, still in transition to a final Cocoa-based form. Of special note may be Outlook, which is replacing Entourage and employs a streamlined design paired with the ribbon interface first introduced for Office on Windows. Several of the screenshots can be seen below.

02/24, 1:20pm

Also adds full Snow Leopard compliance

Recosoft has released PDF2Office Personal 5.0 for the Mac platform. The program rebuilds the layout of PDF documents for Microsoft Word. It automatically reforms paragraphs, preserves styles and regroups independent graphic elements. It also creates tables, and processes headers and footers, endnotes and footnotes, and columns and sections. The software operates as a plug-in.

01/15, 12:45pm

Software now supports Snow Leopard

Recosoft has updated its Mac-based PDF conversion tool for Microsoft Office, PDF2Office Professional. The software converts PDF documents into formats such as Excel, Word, PowerPoint and HTML. It automatically recreates the original layout of a document, detecting styles, forming paragraphs and regrouping graphics. It can also extract images, and supports tables, headers and footers, column formatting and endnotes and footnotes.

01/11, 9:25am

Follows patch for Windows systems

Word for the Mac will soon be patched in order to comply with a recent court ruling, says Microsoft. In an unusual turn the update will actually remove functionality, specifically some custom XML support. "While Office for Mac products were not accused of infringement, we are changing the product to allay any potential concerns about compliance with the [court] injunction," explains Microsoft spokesman Kevin Kutz.

12/23, 10:45am

MS requires new Office fix to obey ruling

Microsoft has acted quickly on its promise to keep Office on shelves by pushing an Office update to computer builders. The supplement, intended for an OEM (original equipment manufacturer) version of Office 2007 from October, removes the support for reading custom-generated XML within DOCX, DOCM and pure XML files. It should continue to open files with the code inside but will no longer show the code to comply with patent infringement claims.

12/22, 2:40pm

MS must pay i4i and take Office off shelves

Microsoft on Tuesday lost its appeal against a $290 million infringement verdict that threatens to remove Word and the Office suite from the market. The US Court of Appeals has upheld a verdict that claims XML code in Word 2003 and 2007 violates patents developed by Toronto, Canada-based i4i for XML plugins. It also removes a temporary stay and would ban all sales of infringing copies of Word as of January 11th unless changes are made by Microsoft.

11/11, 11:35am

Also makes tweaks to specific features

Microsoft has posted a fresh update for Office 2008 for Mac, v12.2.3. The patch primarily addresses stability problems, such as one affecting the entire suite which could result in application crashes after a program was opened. Several unique crash scenarios have been fixed in Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Document Connection. Security has also been upgraded, closing a hole which could be used to overwrite memory with malicious code.

10/29, 12:00pm

Expands collection to 150

Jumsoft has announced Keynote Objects FX 4.0, an update to its 3D image collection for Apple’s iWork suite. The upgrade brings the total number of objects up to 150, covering items ranging from classic furniture to gift boxes. The 50 new ones are geared towards sports and leisure. Each image is optimized for Keynote presentation use, at a resolution of 1024x768.

10/01, 11:00pm

App now enables editing of DOC and XLS files

DataViz has launched the latest version of its Documents To Go app for the iPhone and iPod touch. Following through with the company's earlier promises, v2.0 adds full support for creating and editing Excel documents. The previous release limited users to just viewing the spreadsheet content.

09/03, 11:10pm

Court says MS can sell Word until appeal is done

The US federal Court of Appeals today granted Microsoft a temporary stay on an injunction that would have banned sales of Word until the conclusion of an appeal against the successful lawsuit filed by Canadian firm i4i. Originally, the developer would have had to stop sales on October 10th and would have forced Microsoft to shut down sales of virtually all copies of Office unless it could plead its case.

08/26, 2:35pm

EndNote X3 update ships

Thomson Reuters has released an update to its bibliography software, EndNote. The latest edition, X3, adds a variety of new referencing options and styles. Users can create multiple bibliographies within a single Word document, while references can be organized with both custom and smart groups. For chemistry journals, the software now allows composite styles that group citations by number and letter.

07/13, 11:10am

MS Office Web and 2010

Microsoft today used its Windows Partners Conference to expand the details of Office 2010, including its web version. Initially considered separate, Microsoft now says Office Web is a counterpart to 2010 but will make it freely available to anyone with a Windows Live account. It will also be free to use on the local network for companies that buy volume licenses of Office 2010, though companies that just want the web app component will also have the option of a subscription.

07/09, 3:30pm

MS Office Web Apps Monday

Microsoft's Monday event should mark a more formal debut for the company's Office Web suite, tipsters said on Thursday. Although announced nine months ago, the suite is now said by Neowin to be getting a demonstration. It's not known if Microsoft will commit to a public release at the gathering.

01/09, 9:40am

First Look Pages 09

Pages has always been a decent word processor, but it’s never been powerful enough to replace Microsoft Word. Apple has, fortunately, boosted Pages '09 with more features in order to make it a better word processor, and an easier desktop publishing program. It may still not match Word feature-for-feature, but that could be a good thing, as what it does offer may be what you really need.

11/06, 4:30pm

Keynote Objects FX 3.0 out

Jumsoft is shipping Keynote Objects FX 3.0, its latest art collection for Mac apps. Objects FX is in particular aimed at both Keynote and Pages, and supplies a variety of pre-rendered 3D images for inclusion in presentations or documents. Version 3.0 doubles the collection size from 50 to 100, in categories including the likes of parties, plants, and soft or metallic objects.

11/06, 1:35pm

Nisus Writer Pro 1.2 patch

Nisus has released a v1.2 update to Writer Pro, its flagship word processing software. Pro differentiates itself from Express with features such as comments, mail merges, and the ability to create indexes and tables of contents. New to v1.2 is an upgraded import component, said to improve the accuracy of file translations, particularly in terms of Microsoft Word documents.

07/21, 1:20pm

You Control 1.7 released

You Software says it has released v1.7 of You Control, its utility for Mac OS X. The program lets people create custom menus in the operating system, which can be placed in locations such as the Menu Bar, a corner of the screen, or in the middle when triggered by a hotkey. Users can launch any file, folder or application present on their Mac.

06/13, 1:20pm

Mellel 2.5

RedleX has released Mellel 2.5, a significant update to the leading word processor for Mac OS X. The new release adds robust cross referencing capabilities, allowing users to refer from one point in the text to another (e.g., "see page 15"). Mellel's reference entry dialogue allows, accordingly, to create reference formats, composed of different elements such as reference to the page number, position in the text (above, next page, below, etc.), page range, and so on. Users can also save and re-use such formats again and again, making the necessary modifications as they go along.

04/15, 2:10pm

Nisus Writer Pro 1.

Nisus Software has announced the upcoming release of Nisus Writer Pro 1.1 Preview, the latest version of the company's alternative word processor. This release adds several new features including Comments, Mail Merge, Go to Page, and more. Also added is a Large Caret option, as well as several additions and enhancements to the Nisus Macro Language. Nisus Writer Pro 1.1 will be available later this Spring for only $80. A CD version is available for an additional $10. A three license Family Pack is available for $100. Nisus Writer Pro uses the same core as Nisus Writer Express, but sports several additional or expanded features including a Table of Contents generator, indexing, bookmarks. There's also attribute sensitive search, that allows you to locate items in documents based on their formatting.

03/13, 9:05am

PDF2Office Personal 4.0

Having shipped the Professional version in February, Recosoft is now launching the Personal edition of PDF2Office 4.0. The plug-in reconstructs the elements of PDF documents within Microsoft Word, maintaining paragraphs, headers and footers, while generating tables and regrouping graphic elements. It additionally builds columns and sections, and incorporates endnotes and footnotes.

01/25, 7:15pm

Nisus Writer Pro, Express

Nisus Software has released Nisus Writer Pro 1.0.3 and Nisus Writer Express 3.0.2. These new releases, which are free to existing users of Pro and Express 3, fix some image display and footnote issues. Writer Express is a scaled-back version of Writer Pro, missing features such as indexing and tables of contents; it nevertheless shares common elements, such as the ability to open Word, WordPerfect and AbiWord documents, as well as view text in scripts such as Arabic, Chinese, Japanese and Hebrew. One of the major upgrades from earlier versions of Express is "floating" graphics, enabling text wrap around them.

01/03, 8:55pm

Word 2008 preview

Users eagerly await the release of Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac, especially those that use Intel-based Macs, as this will be the first incarnation of the suite to include Universal application support. The suite has been redesigned to be more “available” to users, introducing a number of new elements, as well as reconfiguring old features to make them more obvious to new and regular users alike. While Office 2008 doesn’t ship until the start of Macworld on January 15th, Microsoft has provided MacNN with a preview of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Entourage ahead of the announcement.